Perfect Ways To Get Room Darkening Curtains That Work

Perfect Ways
To Get Room Darkening
Curtains That Work
Author: Lee Stevens
Curtain Styles You Should
Definitely NOT use
If you want the darkest room possible. These are great
curtain styles, however just no right for room darkening
curtains.
Tab Top Curtains: Because these have to hang from
decorative curtain rods. The light shines in between the
tabs. Also up from behind the curtain rod.
Grommet Top Curtains: Because the light
shines in through the grommet openings.
Also because the way the curtains heading waves
back and forth on the curtain rod. This creates large
gaps over the top of the curtains that allow in lots
of light.
Rod Pocket Curtains: Because this style
of curtain is threaded on to a decorative curtain
rod. This means that the curtain brackets holding
the rod make the curtain sit to far off the wall.
Thus allowing too much light to leak from the
sides of the curtains. As well as over the top
behind the rod.
Personally I would avoid any kind of
curtains that have to hang from a decorative
curtain rod. This kind of curtain hardware is
not right for room darkening window
treatments. You will not end up with a very dark room.
Discover lots more about how to hang curtains here.
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Curtain Styles You
Definitely Should Use
Pinch Pleat Curtains and Pencil Pleat
Curtains are the 2 curtain styles
I recommend for using to darken a room
substantially. The reason being is that
these curtain styles can be hung from a
curtain track rather than a decorative
curtain rod.
This makes all the difference as curtain tracks fit so much closer to the
wall than a curtain rod. The brackets that support the track are usually only
about 1 inch from front to back. Where as curtain rod brackets are around
2 ½ inches to 3 inches from front to back.
This makes a huge difference in the amount of light that leaks in to the
room around your black out curtains.
Important Tips About Hanging!
Another big thing that needs to be considered is where to install your
curtain track. I usually recommend fixing it about 5 inches over the top of
your window.
However when it comes to installing room darkening curtains. I
recommend you fix your curtain track at 8 inches over the top of your
window. This will help to block even more light.
The next big thing I recommend is to go wider with your curtain track on
both sides of your window than the normal 5 inches. I would add 10 inches
to each side of your window. For more info take a look at how to hang
curtain rods.
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This again will again make your black out curtain sit much wider than the
window. Thus blocking more light.
The 3rd big thing I recommend you do is to hang floor length curtains. This
is regardless of how short your window may be. This will stop most light
from leaking from under your curtains when closed.
The only exception to this rule is if you have a full length window such as
a patio door or French doors. In this situation you just have to have the
curtains touch the floor. However you will still get a little light leaking in
under the curtains in places.
Now that covers all the basics of how to get your black out curtains to
make your room a lot darker. You can though take it a couple of steps
further and make your room almost completely light free.
Blocking Even More Light!
You can use valance window treatments or cornice window treatments to
block a lot more light coming in to your room. Again though this only half
the story. The other half of the story is the kind of valance curtain
hardware you use to support it from.
This is where you need to forget about
store bought valance rods. All you need
to use is a piece of timber just like this
one here. This is a 6 inch wide by 1 inch
thick piece of timber. This one is painted
white.
Also notice the self adhesive vecro strip that is also stapled to the leading
edge of the board. This goes around both ends of the board as well. This
will support the top treatment. The window topper will hide all the tracks,
boards and brackets. So creating a really great looking finish.
It is installed 8 inches over your window like a shelf using simple “L”
shaped brackets like these just below.
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Once you have what is called more commonly
a top board fixed in place. You can now fix
your curtain track to the under side of your top
board rather than fixing it to the wall as usual.
The benefit you get from using this top board is
that it blocks 99% of the light from the top of
your window.
Most curtain tracks come with what are called “universal curtain brackets”
like these on the left below. They have 2 fixing holes. One in the top for
fixing upwards to the underside of the top board. Then you have a top fix
only backet as on the right below. These are smaller and more discreet
when you only want to fix up to a top board or a ceiling.
Another big thing you can do when using a top board is with your curtain
track. Rather than fitting just one track all the way across your window.
You can fit 2 curtain tracks.
These 2 tracks need to be about 5 inches
longer than half the length of your top
board. This will allow them to over lap
with a small gap between like in the picture
here on the right.
This means when you close your curtains, they will over lap each other by
10 inches. This will block 99 % of the light at the center point of your
window.
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In the picture here you can see there are
small white pieces that fit between the top
board and the curtain track brackets. These
are called “spacers” and as the name suggests. They create a space
between the underside of the top board and your track.
This allows the large brackets that hold up the top board to fit comfortably
between the top board and the curtain track. I usually fit the curtain track
to the top board at ground level. Then present it to the large “L” brackets
already fixed to the wall over my window. You just need to then slide the
top board in to place. Then use some small screws to hold it in place.
You can use many things as spacers. Such as several thick rubber
grommets. You can also just simply make some out of small blocks of
wood with small holes drilled through the center. So any thing will do as a
spacer as long as it creates the space you need. It really doesn’t matter
what it looks like as you won't see it when it's all finished.
The next thing to do is to add a hook eye
screw to both ends of the top board. These
fit as close to the wall as you can get them.
They screw upwards to the underside of the
top board.
When hanging your curtains the last curtain
hook on each outside edge of your curtains
hangs from these hook eyes.
This makes the outside edges of your
curtains hug the wall down each side of
your window. This gives you the best light
blocking down the sides possible.
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Here on the right you can see how the curtain
panel hangs right up against the wall. This
combined with going wider past each side of
your window with the curtain hanging hardware.
Will make it a very good light block and it also
a very neat way to hang curtains.
In the picture on the right you
can see the right curtain panel
closed over the window. The
other curtain track sits in front
by about 5 or 6 inches.
This makes the curtains overlap
well creating a total light block
from the center of your window.
Creating The Finishing Touch!
Now the final part of this jigsaw puzzle is the top treatment. Either a
valance window treatment or a cornice window treatment. Both of these
will hang from the leading 1 inch edge of the top board.
They have 2 benefits, firstly they block the remainder of the light from
over the top of your curtains. Secondly they cover up all of the window
treatment hardware. Thus making for an attractive finished looking
window treatment.
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You have 3 ways of securing your top treatment to the edge of the top
board.
1. Using Velcro tape on the edge of the top board and the top of your
cornice or valance.
2. Using small hook eyes screwed in to the edge of the top board at 3 or
4 inch spacing. All the way around the 1 inch edge of the board
including the sides. The curtain hooks in your valance will then hook
through the hook eyes to hang.
3. The final way to hang a valance would be to use a staple gun to
staple between the valance pleats directly in to the 1 inch edge of the
top board. This obviously will only work for a pleated valance. Such
as a double or triple pleated valance. Also for a pencil pleated
valance, the kind that gathers pleats as you pull the cords in the
header tape.
You should if you use all these black out curtain ideas have a window
treatment. That will block enough light to make your room very very dark.
Believe me you don't want to block every last speck of light coming in to
your room.
A True Story!
I will tell you a little story of a customer I had a few years ago. I installed
some perfect fit roller shades to their bedroom windows. My customer
insisted they did not want to see any light whatsoever coming in to the
room. They told me they were very light sensitive and it affected them
sleeping well.
So I fitted the perfect fit roller shades as asked. These roller shades fit in to
a surrounding frame. This frame is then fitted in to the window recess. The
edges between the frame and the window recess are then sealed to block
all light gaps.
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So now when the roller shades are pulled down within the surrounding
frames. They block 100% of the light from that window. Not a speck of
light can be seen. I finished the job and left my customers to enjoy
sleeping much better.
About a month later when out and about. I bumped in to these customers
and asked how they were liking their super dark room. They told me that
they had not realized how dark total darkness really is. They could not see
their hands in front of their faces. Not a thing in the bedroom.
They went on to tell me that they now leave the bedroom door open a
fraction with the landing light on. Just so they can get out of bed to use the
bathroom without breaking their necks.
So the moral of this story is that even though folks may say they want total
darkness. Almost nobody really does in reality ;-)
VERY IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ
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